[QUOTE=tomndebb]
The couple of times that I have seen the declaration from the Vatican (1980?) in reference to the admission of married Anglican Communion priests to the Catholic priesthood, I have seen no reference to priests or pastors of any other denomination. If someone has a citation of a similar declaration regarding other groups, I am willing to be corrected on the point.
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So far as I know, what is unique about the 1980 Pastoral Provision is not that it allows for the ordination as priests of married Anglican priests received into the Catholic Church, but that it allows for continuing structures, within the church, to accommodate former Anglicans – the ‘Anglican use’ parishes.
The 1980 Pastoral Provision document refers exclusively to the US, but Dr Graham Leonard, the retired Bishop of London, was received into the Catholic Church in England and ordained a priest in 1994, and I am aware of a few married ex-Anglican ministers in parish ministry as a Catholic priest in Australia. So clearly the 1980 Pastoral Provision document is not an exhaustive statement of the circumstances in which married men can be ordained in the Latin rite.
I’m not personally aware of any married ex-Lutheran minister being ordained, but the 1980 document does not set the boundaries of the practice. So I wouldn’t assume that, because it only applies to Anglicans, the ordination of married ministers from other denominations doesn’t happen.
[QUOTE=dahfisheroo]
Oh, and to all who say that allowing priests to marry would solve the shortage of priests, why then do the protestant denominations who allow married men, women and gays also have shortages as well?
In many countries there is an abundance of priests, in fact America is importing them to support our parishes.
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Yeah, but it would mean that priests who fell in love would not be faced with the conundrum between staying a priest, getting married or the good ol’ “Q: in a village, how do you know who is the priest’s child? A: it’s the only person who calls him ‘uncle’ instead of ‘father’”
[QUOTE=Chronos]
And it’s my understanding that the bit about married Protestant ministers converting applies only to ministers ordained in the Apostolic succession: That is to say, the minister was ordained by someone who was ordained by someone else who was ordained by… on back to one of the Apostles. Officially, the Catholic Church maintains that this is the case for all of its priests (though how the Succession was traced through the first few centuries, I don’t know), but this is not the case for most Protestant denominations (the Anglicans and other Episcopalians follow it, but I don’t know about any others).
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I don’t think that can be the basis for the Roman Catholic church accepting Anglican priests.
Anglicanism does recognize and follow the principle of the Apostolic Succession, and believes that the Anglican priesthood has maintained the Succession. However, my understanding is that the Roman Catholic church disputes the validity of Anglican orders at a certain point in the early 17th century, and therefore does not accept that Anglican priests are within the Succession.
So, if the Roman Catholic church doesn’t accept that Anglican priests are within the Apostolic Succession, then that can’t be the basis for accepting them as priests in the Roman Catholic church.
I knew a former RC priest who went the other way - fell in love with a nun, and both of them left the RC church to be received into the Anglican church, where he continued as a priest without re-ordination.
Some few years ago, the priest who was for all intents and purposes the pastor of my parish at home was a married man who had been ordained as a Methodist minister. I have no cite, but my impression was that it was very rare because Methodists don’t have Succession, and therefore required a special dispensation from the pope. As I recall, there were about 10 married (previously) Methodist ministers who got the dispensation that year, a lot smaller number than from faiths that do have Succession.
He was a great priest, too.
My understanding, (certainly open to correction as I have already demonstrated that I have some errors in my knowledge), is that while priests of the Anglican communion hve been able to transfer their “educational” credits and “job experience,” giving them a fast track to ordination, they still go through the Sacrament of Ordination in the RCC. Even if I have that point wrong, it is more probable that a Methodist minister would have followed that process than that the minister would have simply been recognized as a priest once a bishop (and Rome) accepted his application to be initiated into the RCC.
(Corrections cheerfully accepted, preferably with citations.)